What is Bitcoin?

Read the Whitepaper

A New Electronic Cash System

Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman of Alphabet

Bitcoin is a remarkable cryptographic achievement and the ability to create something that is not duplicable in the digital world has enormous value.

Bill Gates, Founder of Microsoft

Bitcoin is a technical tour de force.

David Marcus, Former President of Paypal

I really like Bitcoin. I own Bitcoins. It’s a store of value, a distributed ledger. It’s a great place to put assets, especially in places like Argentina with 40 percent inflation, where $1 today is worth 60 cents in a year, and a government’s currency does not hold value. It’s also a good investment vehicle if you have an appetite for risk.

Bitcoin uses peer-to-peer technology to operate with no central authority or banks; managing transactions and the issuing of bitcoins is carried out collectively by the network. Bitcoin is open-source; its design is public, nobody owns or controls Bitcoin and everyone can take part. Through many of its unique properties, Bitcoin allows exciting uses that could not be covered by any previous payment system. Bitcoins are created as a reward for payment processing work in which users offer their computing power to verify and record payments into a public ledger called the blockchain. This activity is called mining and miners are rewarded with transaction fees and newly created bitcoins. Besides being obtained by mining, bitcoins can be exchanged for other currencies, products, and services. Users can send and receive bitcoins for an optional transaction fee.

If you don’t believe me or don’t get it, I don’t have time to try to convince you, sorry.

– Satoshi Nakamoto

The Halvening

Reward Drop from 12.5 BTC to 6.25 BTC

Bitcoin has a monetary policy that was coded into the system right from the start that reduces the rate over time, until the generation of new bitcoins finally stops entirely at a maximum of 21 million in 2140. There will still always be one block coming out every ten minutes, but the number of bitcoins handed out as a reward in each block will come down in sharp steps, cutting in half about once every four years.

Let’s talk about percentages

Access to financial services can serve as a bridge out of poverty. Having a source of emergency funds when calamity hits, whether the death of a family member, a medical emergency, or a natural disaster, can keep people from falling into extreme poverty and access to formal savings instruments—providing a safe place to save—can be made easier and less onerous for every single person in the world.